So maybe I'm glad I never did pursue a federal job when I was in DC?

Heh. To be fair, things have only gotten utterly ridiculous in the last few years, because of the new rules about veterans' hiring. So far as I can tell.

bon, I had no idea it was so nuts there. Argh.

Thanks, Ginger. If my fluorescent lighting only intermittently actually turns on when I flip the switch, or takes hours to light up, is that just something tubes do when they are old and need replacing, or do I need to worry about my wiring?

-t, it doesn't sound like wiring. Old fluorescents get dimmer and slower to light, but not so much intermittent. It might be the ballast. Do you know how old the fixtures are?

I don't, they're at least 4 years old, probably less than 30 but where in that range I couldn't say. The kitchen was redone in the 80s, I think, but I'm basing that off when the microwave model was available, so it's hardly precise. And who knows if the lights were done at the same time.

It's possible they are not so much intermittently refusing to light entirely as I get impatient and turn them off before they come on. But if it's not likely a wiring issue I'll try replacing the tubes and see if that fixes it.

Suzi, did K-Bug locate her gift after your scavenger hunt? What a great idea! Happy birthday to her!

O wow, Dead Can Dance tickets are available. I am tempted, very tempted. But they are expensive, VERY expensive. Sigh.

Happy birthday twins!

My brain is so gone I cannot remember what else I was going to respond to. And I already scrolled back and then got distracted once, so you will all have to survive without whatever pivotal thing I was going to say.

In I'm sure it's completely unrelated news, someone gave me a free coffee today. Okay, well, I had a decaf on the way to work, and then I was early so I stopped by Mojo, the little local coffee shop near work, so I had decaf mocha. And then after I got home, I swung by our local coffee shop in our town, and my friends were there so I sat down. And then they were emptying out the brewed coffee urns, so gave me a free cup.

So, although two of those were lessened caffeine, that's still a damn lot of caffeine for me lately, and I am all jittery.

She did, Kat. I had her going into almost every room, including the disaster zone of CJ's room. She wasn't happy when one clue led her to the box with Grandma's ashes. Not like the next clue was IN the box. It was just under it...

The treasure at the end of the hunt? Tickets to see Bill Cosby live on Saturday.

Okay, tomorrow, I'm going into the office. I'm going into the 2hr meeting where I will be grilled about the system unavailability Sunday morning, and about the intranet unavailability yesterday afternoon. I have to pretend I have a sold handle on what went wrong and how we can fix it, even though I'm not one of the techs that worked on either problem. MotherFUCKER.

In the office.

Makeup, even, Maybe a skirt.

Bed now.

Sleep well, ita.

For the past month I've been thinking about how much I wish I could have another kid. But there are so many compelling reasons against it:

1. I SUCK at being pregnant.

2. Hell, I suck at getting pregnant and I'm even older and less fertile now.

3. Toddlerhood and potty training again? no thank you.

4. My own health is worse now.

But if I did get pregnant again, I'd be totally lazy, chocolate eating, feet up on the couch, take me to high risk unit for 7 months of bed rest, thank you very much, yes I'll have a cerclage now to keep my cervix closed kind of preggo. Forget this need to be tough and independent shit. No yoga. No swimming. Just a big fat lazy 9 months of stress and anxiety.

Umm... perhaps it's a bad idea after all.